On July 4th, while my compatriots ogled great rains of fireworks, I stared at a single flashing light. Fireworks to a single flashing light; a reduction of many to few and much to little.
To pull the complexity of human feeling into an object is an intense economization. When that feeling is humorous, the pressure that rises from its reduction within a puppet can make the human viewer erupt with laughter. But with the Kaput Proyect’s The Falling Love there is no eruption of that tension. The show's wooden puppets, though breathtaking, are carved so sparely they retain the impassivity of trees. Their story about love and despair is expressed through the sounds of one musician, Monica Lopez Lau, and the movements of their puppeteer, Edwin Salas, who also uses Noh and other dance techniques to keep the tension high and precisely placed.
At least this is what I have gathered. I haven’t seen this show live yet, but I have watched pieces of it on YouTube and Facebook. Through these platforms I also met Salas, and on July 4th I had the pleasure of sitting in on his interview with Mexico City's Radio Mente Abierta and that single flashing light.
The interview connected Salas with the hip intellectuals who listen to Radio Mente Abierta, and doubtless with other artists as well. Salas is ceaseless collaborator, creating a stream of works with other artists including dancers, musicians, and puppeteers. Many of these relationships begin online, where again, economy of expression is at work. A short video clip or radio interview serves as a digital blip of an introduction, igniting an intensely human process of collaborative decisionmaking. Every piece of information one of these artists offers the other online is shared but also stored in a dynamic collection across platforms, format, and often, language.
I look forward to seeing the Kaput Project’s The Falling Love at the Palacio de Bellas Artes on July 14th. I also look forward to listening to this radio interview again once I am fluent in Spanish. English today is burdened with too many words, even as online communication challenges us to use fewer. During the radio interview I mostly listened, but when I spoke I tried to remember to economize words, because Spanish is best spoken in few words.
Mejor hablar con pocas palabras.
Mejor hablar poco.
Mejor asi.
Asi.
At least this is what I have gathered. I haven’t seen this show live yet, but I have watched pieces of it on YouTube and Facebook. Through these platforms I also met Salas, and on July 4th I had the pleasure of sitting in on his interview with Mexico City's Radio Mente Abierta and that single flashing light.
The interview connected Salas with the hip intellectuals who listen to Radio Mente Abierta, and doubtless with other artists as well. Salas is ceaseless collaborator, creating a stream of works with other artists including dancers, musicians, and puppeteers. Many of these relationships begin online, where again, economy of expression is at work. A short video clip or radio interview serves as a digital blip of an introduction, igniting an intensely human process of collaborative decisionmaking. Every piece of information one of these artists offers the other online is shared but also stored in a dynamic collection across platforms, format, and often, language.
I look forward to seeing the Kaput Project’s The Falling Love at the Palacio de Bellas Artes on July 14th. I also look forward to listening to this radio interview again once I am fluent in Spanish. English today is burdened with too many words, even as online communication challenges us to use fewer. During the radio interview I mostly listened, but when I spoke I tried to remember to economize words, because Spanish is best spoken in few words.
Mejor hablar con pocas palabras.
Mejor hablar poco.
Mejor asi.
Asi.